Good morning from Niseko and the very fine start to the month continues this morning with another good 15cm of fresh snow and the good Avalanche folk reporting up to 30cm on mountain. That brings up my total observed snowfall in my last six reports to 77cm. Yey!

And, it continues to snow at the time of writing - rather heavily at the moment too. Note: the snow itself isn't heavy! It's lovely and light.

Sunshine is still looking likely for Monday. Before and after that though just expect snow to keep on falling.

It's surely going to be a busy weekend here in Niseko, and so it's great that everyone will be able to enjoy fresh conditions each morning. There's lots of visitors here now and also arriving for the Chinese New Year celebrations.

Enjoy your time here everyone!

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Yesterday was the opening day of the ever-popular Sapporo Snow Festival.

This year it's the 67th time that this event is being held and it's going to be running until 11th February at the main Odori site in downtown Sapporo, and until 18th February at the Tsudome site. It's highly recommended, and no doubt already in the plans of a fair few of you reading this.

Apparently about 2 million people visit each year! That's a lot of people.

I haven't been myself yet but hope to get to see it in the next few days. I saw on the news last night that one of the snow sculpture attractions this year is of the new Shinkansen train that is going to be opening next month (the first time a Shinkansen bullet train line comes up to Hokkaido, initially to Hakodate). Looks like they have lots of images beaming onto the ice to make it almost like a cinema experience.

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Resort specific lift opening news at time of writing (subject to change during the day):

The atmospheric pressure gradient is small, but snow clouds are flowing in Niseko area, dropping 30cm of crystal snowflakes above 800m elevation. According to observations and weather transition, the development of snowdrifts is minor and the avalanche risk under 1000m elevation is low. However, 60cm surface slab slides are to be considered in area above 1100m elevation where relative strong westerly wind has been blowing, namely Annupuri’s Osawa cornice slopes and the Backbowl sidewalls. A slide triggered at the top of the slope, will clean everything on its way down, including people at the bottom of the valley. The snow is in really good shape, overhead blower condition in some areas. Beware of hitting trees and falling into cracks. Uncontrolled speed range can be very dangerous; do not overestimate the performance of the skis and boards. Many cases of people entering Haru no Taki strictly off-limits area from the Mizuno no Sawa area are being reported. It is very unfortunate to have a minority always disregarding the Rules wen most people are respecting it. We hope for a safe and enjoyable day.